Justice Olubunmi Oyewole of the Ikeja High Court has fixed next week Monday for judgment in the case of alleged N85 billion contract fraud at the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) between 2001 and 2003, brought against embattled Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) chieftain, Chief Olabode George and five other persons by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

Bode George, Arc. Aminu Dabo, Captain O. Abidoye, Alhaji Abdulahi Aminu Tafida and Alhaji Zanna Maidaribe and Engr. Sule Aliyu were all arraigned on a 163 count of conspiracy, disobedience of lawful orders, inflation of contract and contract splitting.
Specifically, they were alleged to have awarded contracts for the supply of several items and repair of some equipment worth billions of naira in foreign currencies. They were also accused of committing an abuse of office “by splitting three contracts into separate contracts; which sum was beyond your approved limits” which EFCC described as “arbitrary and prejudicial to the right of the Federal Minister of Transportation, being the appropriate authority to award contracts in excess of N20 Million.”

During the trial which lasted for 15 months, one of the major prosecution witnesses, Engr. Mustapha Bukar, a director in the Federal Ministry of Transportation, who chaired the 7-man administrative panel instituted by the Federal Government to probe the activities of the NPA said his panel discovered that about 29,526 contracts were awarded by the management of the NPA between year 2001 and 2003.

In his evidence, the witness said that some of the contracts were split and inflated before they were awarded to different contractors by the NPA management. However, the witness, admitted under cross-examination by counsel to the defendants that there was no evidence indicating that the contracts awarded were given out or signed by the Board of the NPA led by Bode George.

Engineer Bukar, specifically, pointed to the court that the board while awarding contracts did not abide by a certain circular from the Federal Government which spelt out the limitation of the Board in award of contracts. The witness said the price intelligence units system and due process were ignored by the management in the award of contracts during the period under review.

However, under cross-examination by the defence lawyers led by Chief Tunji Ayanlaja, (SAN), Engineer Bukar admitted that one of the committee members, Greg Ogbueifon, had earlier written a petition against the NPA Board over some issues.

He also agreed that it was morally wrong for same Ogbueifon to be a member of the committee investigating the management.

Ten other prosecution witnessess corroborated Engr. Bukar’s evidence with the prosecuting team led by festus Keyamo urging the court to convict Bode George and his co-defendant as the allegations against them have been proved beyond reasonable doubt.

Counsel to Bode George, Chief Tunji Ayanlaja (SAN) at the close of his case urged the court to dismiss the charges as his client has proved his innocence.

In his joint defence with the other defendants, he argued that all the contracts awarded under his leadership in NPA were backed up by bank guarantees and irrevocable letters of credit from reputable banks. To this end, he denied that he and other defendants disobeyed any lawful order.

He told the court that there was never a time that any contract brought to the Board was split and that there were appraisal officers who carried out market survey and price intelligence before advising on what sum a contract should be awarded for and that it was not the responsibility of the Board to fix prices on contracts to be awarded.

He further said that the 2001 circular expected to guide award of contracts was never sent to NPA while he was Chairman of the Board of NPA, but that the Board got to know about the circular several weeks later through a member of the Board.

He said contrary to their expectations, the circular which was signed by the minister of finance was addressed to the Ministry of Water Resources without a covering note, adding that no such letter came from the Transport Minister who is the supervisory authority of the NPA.

He subsequently prayed the court to declare that the prosecution failed to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt on count 58-68 dealing with abuse of authority of office in line with Section 104 of the Criminal Code Law of Lagos State and also failed to prove the case of conspiracy against the defendants as well.